People pursue outdoor activities because it's fun, entertaining and enjoyable. We are a family oriented blog coming to you from Lake D'Arbonne in north Louisiana with reports about living on the lake, fishing and hunting, a little humor and outdoor news. We love telling stories about the outdoors. Some of them are even true.

Hicks was a highlight

I hadn’t met Greg Hicks of Farmerville before last Thursday night, but I certainly enjoyed making his acquaintance and watching him emcee the first ever Union Parish Big Buck banquet at the Farmerville Rec Center. Greg’s name is a regular sight in publications like Louisiana Sportsman, where he reports on big deer kills in our area. He’s also instrumental in buck reports online and in helping with the banquet held last week.

On top of that, he was an excellent emcee, sharing details about hunting, great stories and some impressive creativity. Deer in Louisiana are smart and those in Union Parish rank among the smartest, he said. He quoted genesis 9:2, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every best of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.”

He then added that, with all respect, maybe there should be a “sub-part A” to that verse. “And God reached down and put extra fear and knowledge into the deer of Union Parish and made it so that these animals would run at the sight of a pickup truck, would blow at the smell of a honey bun and also flee with reckless abandon at the sound of an all-terrain vehicle.”

There was a very serious side to the banquet, and Hicks pointed that out. “We are here tonight not only to celebrate hunting in Union Parish, but we’re also here to learn how to make it better.” Events like this one will certainly help to do that! Almost 500 people attended the event including a lot of families. It was an event that the organizers should surely be proud of!

BASS Classic Winner:

GREENVILLE, S.C. —Casey Ashley, a 31-year-old South Carolina native, who has lived just a few miles from Lake Hartwell all his life, caught five bass that weighed 20 pounds, 3 ounces to cap a moving victory in the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro on his home waters with a three-day total of 50-1. The weight was enough to help Ashley pass Elite Series pro Bobby Lane of Florida, who finished second with 46-15, and Texas angler Takahiro Omori, who placed third with 44-3.

Ashley is an interesting story. The local favorite began the tournament by singing the National Anthem on Day 1 on the water. Tomorrow he’ll be singing all the way to the bank with a $300,000 check for winning the Classic!